DRUG SUSPECT: ARREST HAS REPERCUSSIONS

Woman Says She, Her Son Are Innocent

[redacted] isn't sure what she's going to do next.

The mother of three recently lost her job and faces eviction from her
rental home in Elizabeth City this month.

If that wasn't enough, [redacted]'s son, [redacted] is facing felony
drug charges and she herself has been charged with possession of drug
paraphernalia and maintaining a dwelling for the use of a controlled substance.

[redacted] were both charged during "Operation Spring Bling," a
police sting several weeks ago that targeted six private residences
and resulted in drug and/or weapon charges against 38 suspects.

[redacted] says losing her home and her job were directly tied to her
arrest: Her landlord wants her out because her home at [redacted] was
one of six raided by police and her employer fired her after her
arrest mugshot showed up in The Daily Advance.

[redacted], who maintains she and her son are innocent of the charges
facing them, says the public reaction to their arrests has been unfairly cruel.

"Right now when cars go past I have fingers pointed at me," she said.
"(People say,) 'That's the lady. I didn't know she did (things like) this.'"

[redacted] claims neighborhood children used to wave to her, and some
- -- like one little boy riding his bike past her house one day last
week -- still do. She says the ones who don't believe the charges
tell her, "Ms. Ann" -- as they call her -- "we know you didn't do
what police say you did."

But the loss of reputation she's suffered is palpable.

"... It's hard when you had so much respect; you had children looking
up to you; you had employers calling on you because you were
dependable at work," she said. "And now (it's hard) to show my face."

[redacted] believes the charges against both her and her son --
[redacted] is charged with possession with intent to sell and deliver
cocaine and felony sale and delivery of a schedule II controlled
substance -- are the result of nosy cops intent on making a case against them.

[redacted] said police have searched her home four times in the past
four years, and each time haven't found any drugs. In 2005, the home
she was then living in on West Fearing Street was searched twice --
each time with her consent, she says. The police attention, however,
eventually cost her the home: she was later evicted.

[redacted] moved to [redacted] Avenue within the past year, and again
the police scrutiny continued. She claims that it still continues,
and she may not be wrong: while she sat on her front porch last week,
a police cruiser drove by twice in 40 minutes.

The intersection next to [redacted]'s home -- she lives on the corner
of [redacted] -- appears to be a popular spot in her neighborhood. A
number of people like to congregate there, as they did on a recent afternoon.

[redacted] says the crowded corner isn't her fault.

"This is a high activity area," she said. "Their main stop is right
there on the corner. And I cannot tell anyone where they should be at
(or) where they should go because the streets are not owned by me."

[redacted] said friends of her three sons also come by her house to
hang out, and that probably doesn't look good to police. She says the
teens tell her their problems and she gives them advice about
everything from school to life.

"If I can stop a child from quitting school; if I can stop a child
from selling drugs or being in the gang; that's who I am," she said.

But [redacted] wasn't able to stop her son [redacted] from joining a gang.

[redacted] admits [redacted] has been a member of the Bloods street
gang, and that he's been arrested for several serious crimes.

In June, [redacted] was found guilty of felony possession of a
schedule II controlled substance. He is also facing charges filed in
2008 of robbery with a dangerous weapon and assault causing serious
bodily injury as well as simple assault arising from a March incident.

[redacted] claims [redacted] is trying to change his life. He in fact
paid the price when he left the Bloods, she said.

"He's been seriously injured for leaving the gang," [redacted] said,
saying his former gang members jumped him. "And they're still trying
to fight him. So's the Crips trying to get him, and he has some of
the cops against him. So he's fighting a bigger war than I am."

Despite those odds, [redacted] has been working on his GED,
[redacted] says. His hope was to enter the military but his felony
drug conviction likely won't allow that to happen, she said.

[redacted] said she's tired of the police scrutiny, particularly the searches.

"I have a lot of sleepless nights from (police) running up in the
house four times (and) never finding anything," [redacted] said.
"Enough is enough.

During the latest search -- the one that led to [redacted]'s and her
son's arrests -- [redacted] says that she and most of the nine other
people in her house were in bed asleep when police came knocking
Friday, June 19, about 6:45 a.m.

[redacted] claims the approximately eight officers, clutching a
search warrant and brandishing weapons, actually did more than knock.

"They did knock the door down because of the indentation on the door
from the ram thing," [redacted] said. "(They were) yelling 'get down,
get down, get down.'"

[redacted] said the officers ordered everyone in the house outside
while they searched for drugs and guns.

[redacted] said besides her three sons, her house guests included a
nephew and his girlfriend, a woman who had been staying with
[redacted], and a friend and her two young children who were waiting
for a ride to the bus station.

"My oldest son, they flipped him off the mattress," [redacted] said.
"All of us was at gunpoint. They made us leave out the house in
handcuffs all sitting at one side. ... It was so painful to see my
kids laying on the floor with guns pointing at them."

Friends later bailed [redacted] and her son out of jail.

"When I got out (of jail), it was just a lot of tears," [redacted]
said. "That's all. Nobody wanted to talk about it."

Aside from convictions for traffic offenses, [redacted] has two
convictions for resisting a public officer, once in 2001 and another
for an incident in 2009. [redacted] claims both times she was
intervening to protect her son from run-ins with police.

For their part, police say the houses targeted during Operation
Spring Bling were selected because of neighbors' complaints about
excessive traffic and other disturbances. Most of the warrants issued
were the result of drug sales from controlled buys by undercover
police officials.

Police Chief Charles Crudup said that executing a search warrant is
always dangerous for police officers. They place their guns "in the
ready position" because they have to be prepared against would-be
attackers, he said.

"We always announce our presence, and we secure everyone in the
house," he said.

That involves getting all of the people in the house into one area
and patting them down for weapons before the search even starts, he said.

Crudup said none of the houses targeted in the operation or any
others for which the police have search warrants are randomly selected.

"Everybody's innocent until proven guilty," he said. "We have done
our investigations, and we're sure what they have been arrested for
(that) the charges are appropriate."